ESCONDIDO - John King owns two houses that he rents out on South Elm Street in Escondido, both with problems created by very mature pine trees.
He pointed to standing water along the roadway.
"Tree problem number one: here is 'Lake Elm Street.' It's get wider, crests over the driveway, floods out the garage. All those cracks are from tree roots and now there's 3- to 4-inch peaks and valleys," King said.
He walked up the street to another tree in front of the house he owns next door.
"Issue number two: the second tree, same thing. Tree roots. They'll fill ‘em up, patches, all from tree roots, once water gets under, it undermines it," King said.
He said he's been going back and forth with Escondido City Hall for eight years.
Public works director Ed Domingue came out to assess the damage. He told 10News that Escondido has a tree management program called "Arbor Access," where 53,000 trees on city property are evaluated.
"Everything told us this was a good tree but because we have a much larger storm coming through, it's a lot more evident there's a problem here with flooding," Domingue said.
It's a healthy tree but causing too many problems. So it's coming down.
"If we cut the roots, unfortunately because of the kind of tree it is, it would probably go over, potentially," Domingue said. "We wouldn't know when that might happen so we've scheduled it for removal next week."
